


Theo's Christmas Holiday

by theearlymorningmist



Series: Daughter of Dionysus [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, RIORDAN Rick - Works, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Found Family, Love Confessions, Mr D - Freeform, Percy Jackson References, Post-The Heroes of Olympus, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28444917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theearlymorningmist/pseuds/theearlymorningmist
Summary: Theo has never had a real Christmas before, so he is excited to spend this Christmas with Adara and her mother, but meddling gods have other plans for the two half-bloods...
Series: Daughter of Dionysus [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2083542
Comments: 5
Kudos: 7





	1. I Annoy Both the Dionysus Siblings

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this like 2 months ago, decided to save it for Christmas time, then forgot to post around Christmas time ^^;; I did a dumb, please excuse lol.  
> [All chapters written, will post everyday]

My name is Theo, and I have very bad ideas. I’m a child of Apollo (you know the guy who drives the sun chariot across the sky everyday and is obsessed with really bad haiku’s?), and I live year-round at Camp Half Blood. We could get into all the specifics, blah blah blah mother died young…blah blah blah some time in foster care…blah blah been at camp ever since… but that’s depressing. And anyways, life has been great since coming to camp, so why dwell on the bad stuff? I have a ton of half-siblings that I hang out with, I’m getting really good at archery, and I have this great girlfriend-Adara. Okay, well….she’s not technically my girlfriend… _yet._

I met Adara a few months ago and of course she couldn’t resist my charm and charisma, so we became fast friends. True, she did once accidentally use her powers of ritual madness on me, but other than that things have been great! So great in fact that her mom, Lori, invited me to spend the holidays with them at their place! Adara has been pouting ever since I crashed her iris-message to her mom and got myself invited, but I know secretly she’s glad I’m coming. Who else is ganna keep her from doing work during Christmas? I mean come on.

That brings me to the issue at hand. I needed to get permission from Chiron, our camp activities director, to leave Camp Half Blood, except he was currently playing a game of pinochle with our Camp Director, Mr. D. Now Mr. D was cranky on a good day, but for the most part, if you stayed out of his way, he didn’t _hate_ most campers. In fact, I would have said that Mr. D used to tolerate me pretty well until a few weeks ago. To make a long story short, Adara and I snuck out to the beach past curfew, I sort of kind of confessed my feelings to her and asked her to be my girlfriend, she sort of kind of told me she wasn’t ready to make that leap yet- which is _fine, really._ Except since then it’s been like Mr. D cranked up the hate dial towards me.

I would call it fatherly protectiveness, but godly parents rarely cared about their kids’ lives at all let alone their love lives (well, unless you were an Aphrodite kid...) Oh yeah, Mr. D is Adara’s dad. And right now I was going to have to ask Chiron for permission to sleepover at Adara’s house in front of him. _Great idea_ , am I right?

“Hey Chiron!” I greeted our centaur mentor (heh, rhyme). “Could I talk to you about something?”

Chiron looked up from the game, his concentration divided. “Go ahead Theo, I’m afraid I can’t step away this game at the moment, I dare say Mr. D is giving me quite a run for my money.” he explained.

I chuckled nervously. Stupid card game. Adara had tried to teach me to play, but I never quite caught on. “Right, well I wanted to ask for permission to leave camp for the holidays.” I asked, hoping that since he was distracted Chiron wouldn’t ask many questions.

Mr. D raised an eyebrow, not even bothering to look at me as he so swiftly crushed my hopes. “Where would you be going, _Ted_? You don’t have a home.” I had a feeling Mr. D was never going to call me by my actual name…

“That was certainly uncalled for, Mr. D.” Chiron defended me, placing another card down. “Although, indeed where do you wish to go?”

I made a silent prayer to my dad not to let Dionysus kill me where I stood. “Adara’s mother invited me to spend Christmas at their apartment.” I admitted. “She insisted in fact. Her mother- not Adara, I mean.” _Shut up mouth, shut up._

Chiron smiled, although whether it was at me or the fact that he had just won the round I wasn’t sure. “Permission granted. I wish you a wonderful holiday Mr. Wern.”

“Thanks!” I called, already halfway out the door. I sauntered down to the cabins and leaned on the door frame of cabin 12 (the Dionysus cabin), knocking on the door. The door swung open and a tall, blonde kid with violet eyes was stood there.

“Hey Pollux! What’s up?” I smiled, fist bumping the kid. I say ‘kid’ but Pollux was one of the older kids at camp at 20 years old. He had recently confided in me that he was thinking of leaving and moving into the city to go to school full time, but he hadn’t mentioned it to his father or to his half-sister yet.

“I’d watch it if I were you, Theo. She’s in a _mood_.” Pollux warned, patting me on the shoulder as he left the cabin. Technically two kids from different cabins weren’t supposed to be alone together inside, but Pollux and I had become friends through our mutual care for Adara and also through our mutual tormenting of her, so he tended to look the other way when Adara and I broke the rules to hang out.

“I am _not_ in a mood!” Adara snapped from inside the cabin. I stepped inside and saw that she had clothes sprawled all over her bed and was seemingly attempting to pack for the holidays. She huffed and dumped her backpack on the ground, sitting on one of the many empty beds with her arms crossed. Gods she was adorable when she was upset.

I made my way over, sitting down and placing a hand on the top of her head, making her head bobble from side to side. “Come ooon, what’s wrong?”

She angrily batted my hand away. “Stop that! You’re so annoying.”

“Well, you’re about to find me even more annoying, because Chiron approved of me staying at your place for the holidays!” I informed her with a wide grin.

“Hera help me…” she whined, flopping down on the bed. I chuckled and pulled her back up by her arms, trapping her in a big hug.

“Come on, it’ll be fun.” I promised. “But in all seriousness, if you don’t want me to come I won’t. But is that really what you’re upset about?” I asked.

She shook her head, sighing heavily. “No.” she muttered, pressing her face into my shoulder. “This is going to be the first holiday I spend with my mom since everything happened. I’m excited, but I’m also really worried… When I visited her before it was only a few hours. But this time it’s going to be days…”

I suddenly understood. Adara had told me about the incident in question, when, because of her inexperience controlling her powers, she had accidentally been exposing her mother to prolonged amounts of ritual madness culminating in a full breakdown.

“It’s not going to be like before, Adara. You were still a kid then, you had no idea what your powers were doing. You’ve gotten so much more powerful and in control since then. Besides, you’re only staying with your mom for a few days, nothing will go wrong.”

“You don’t _know_ that.”

“I do too! It’s a child of Apollo thing.” I argued.

“You don’t have powers of prophecy, dummy.” Adara scolded me, pulling back. She had a small smirk on her lips and I knew I’d done my job well.

“Ah, well maybe one day.” I shrugged. “But I do give you my Theo-Guarantee that with me there you’ll have an awesome time.”

Adara shook her head. “I still can’t believe after one iris-message conversation you somehow managed to get my mom to like you enough to invite you to stay.”

I tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “What can I say, she knows I’m good for you.” I winked.

A soft blush bloomed across Adara’s cheeks. “More like ‘good for nothing’.” she countered, her eyes shining. I swear I had to stop myself from falling into them.

There was a soft knock on the door before it opened, and Pollux came back in. “Sorry guys, it’s almost curfew and I saw the harpies hanging around already.”

Adara rolled her eyes. “I bet Mr. D sent them. I don’t get what his problem with you is.” she huffed, standing up to walk me to the door.

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah…no idea.”

Pollux shot me a sympathetic look as he headed to his bed.

“Meet you by the big house with your stuff after breakfast tomorrow?” I asked.

Adara nodded. “For a super fun 3 hour bus trip.”

I patted Adara on the head. “It’s ganna be great. Now get some sleep, Paddles.” I smiled, leaning forward and quickly pressing a kiss to her forehead before she could protest. Once again, the flustered blush on her cheeks made my heart clench.

“Night to you too Pollux!” I called, blowing him a kiss as well. The look her half-brother gave me was nowhere near as cute as the one Adara had, and somehow I felt like my teasing had just lost us Pollux’s ‘look-the-other-way’ service for at least a week. Still worth it.

Satisfied with the outcome of the day, I headed back to the Apollo cabin to get some sleep before what was going to be my first ever family holiday celebration…


	2. The Best (Worst) Christmas Sweater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theo and Adara prepare to leave Camp Half Blood for the holidays.

There are a lot of benefits to being a child of Apollo. Most of us are skilled healers or archers, almost all of us are blessed with perfect pitch and singing abilities…but if there was one thing that I would change it would be the crack of dawn automatic wake up call. As children of the sun god, we always woke as the golden chariot crossed the sky. No sleeping in- not even on weekends! On cold mornings like this, it made me envy the Hypnos kids, who pretty much got to sleep 24/7.

My grouchiness was soon replaced with excitement as I remembered that today would start my first real Christmas vacation! I hopped out of bed and dug through my backpack, messing up everything I had packed the previous night, just to pull out the chunky knitted Christmas sweater that one of the Athena kids had helped me make. Despite all Athena kids having a gift for weaving and other related string-activities, thanks to my handi-work the sweater had come out looking a little wonky and weird. But the design was still visible! The classic Camp Half Blood logo over green, with red striped accents. I didn’t care that it was still a few days away from Christmas, I was wearing it _now._

Later, in the dining hall I caught up with Adara waiting in line to scrape some food into the fire. “Oop, ‘scuse me- not cutting, I swear, just chatting!” I told people as I squeezed by before nudging Adara. She took one look at me and rolled her eyes, barely containing her laughter.

“That is a ridiculous sweater. But also- where did you get it, and I need one.” she chuckled, tossing half a croissant into the fire.

I was glad to see she was in a better mood than yesterday. I walked with her back to her table. “Oh it’s a one of a kind- made it myself.”

“Oh? _Very_ impressive. You should go into business for yourself.” Adara teased, taking a seat.

I smirked, opening my mouth to say something snarky back, but I was interrupted.

“To your own table now, _Ted._ ” Mr. D warned me, irritation written on his face.

I let out a silent huff, heading back to the line. It was especially long today since everyone who was leaving for the holidays was grabbing breakfast before hitting the road. As I waited, my mind began to wander. Things at camp seemed to always be getting in the way of us making any progress…whether it was my siblings, the stupid ‘no 2 campers alone’ rule, or Mr. D himself. It seemed like anytime Adara and I were having a moment they got in the way. It’s not like I was even going to try to kiss her or anything, I respected her boundaries, it was just nice to spend time together. Even though she’d become much better at being around crowds, I suspected the part of Adara that only truly let her guard down when she was alone with someone was something that would always be there.

Finally, it was my turn. I scraped some of my food into the flames for the gods and, to my surprise, when the flames reacted it didn’t smell like a warm summer day and fresh linens like usual, it smelled like flowers and strong perfume? I shrugged it off, heading back to my table to eat.

Later on, after quickly re-packing, I headed to the big house to meet Adara. She was already there with Pollux, chatting and nodding. The two looked so different, Adara with her dark hair and green eyes and Pollux with his blonde hair and violet eyes, you’d never guess they were siblings.

I waved as I approached. “Hey man, are you joining us at Adara’s place?” I asked him.

“No, I’m going to my mom’s.” he replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

Adara smiled and gave his arm a supportive squeeze. “I managed to convince him to get in contact with her again.” she explained.

I didn’t know the whole story of what had happened between Pollux and his mother, but I had gotten the short version from Adara that after losing his twin brother Castor, Pollux had shut her out, not wanting her involved in the dangerous demi-god world. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the two half-siblings were more alike than they probably realized.

“I should get going.” Pollux announced. “See you guys after Christmas.”

“Wait!” Adara called, hugging her brother tightly. “Iris-message us on Christmas, okay?”

Pollux smiled and anyone could see how much he cared for his sister. “Will do.” Pollux promised, ruffling Adara’s hair before heading off.

She turned back to me and I smiled brightly. “Ready to go? I’ve got sooo many fun things planned for the bus ride.” I informed her.

“Why does that make me nervous.” she muttered. “Just a sec!”

I watched as Adara made her way over to Chiron and Mr. D, who were walking up from the dinning pavilion. She seemed to ask him something which Mr. D thought over for a moment before muttering something in response and lazily dropping a few coins into Adara’s hand. What happened next surprised both me _and_ Mr. D (by the look on his face), as Adara _hugged_ the irritable god. When she let him go, he remained stunned, and Adara hurried back over to me.

“What’s with the sudden show of paternal love?” I asked, chuckling.

“What? It was a Christmas present.” she explained.

“Ah, I get your game now, Paddles. You’re too cheap to get people real presents so you give them hugs and kisses instead huh?” I teased her.

“Shut up! That’s not what I do.” she argued.

“Hey, I’m not complaining. All I’m saying is that you already gave me a kiss on the cheek for my birthday, so I’m wondering what my Christmas present could be.” I teased, wiggling my eyebrows.

Adara shoved me, pouting. “Come on, we’ll miss our bus if we don’t leave now.” she pointed out.

“Alright, alright, let’s go.” I grabbed both our bags and carried them in one hand so I could drape my other arm around Adara’s shoulder. What? She gets cold! Plus…it was nice.

“So what are the coins for?” I asked, as we walked.

“Oh, I asked Mr. D what Ariadne might want for a Christmas present. It’s really hard shopping for gods. He gave me the coins and told me just to Iris-message her more often.” she explained.

I liked Ariadne, she seemed cool. She could be kind of scary though… Sometimes I’d say hello when Adara chatted with her step mother and there was something about her eyes, even when she was smiling happily, that warned me she could and would destroy me where I stood if it so pleased her.

“You better make sure you do then.” I chuckled.

Argus drove a group of campers including Adara and I to the bus station. We got on a packed greyhound bus heading to Adara’s hometown. Once we were settled, I pulled out an old ipod I had borrowed from one of the Hermes kids. Although, did it count as ‘borrowing’ when the person you borrowed it from probably stole it in the first place. Either way, it was music! I handed one headphone to Adara and put the other one in my own ear.

It was only then I realized why they’d let me borrow the ipod so easily… There were about 100 songs on the thing but they were all ‘All I Want for Christmas” by Mariah Carey.


	3. I'm in the Photo For Once

After listening to Mariah Carey’s ‘All I want for Christmas is You’ about a thousand times during the bus ride, I could safely say that in terms of holding up under torture, I liked my chances. Adara gave up and threw the headphone back at me after only the 10th listen through, opting to take a nap instead. I didn’t complain though because she slept with her head on my shoulder and I couldn’t stop smiling.

Eventually I had to wake her up because we were arriving at the bus station. It was snowing pretty heavily, but Adara assured me her mom’s apartment wasn’t far, so we trekked on in the cold. It was actually kind of nice, since the magical barrier at camp kept out rain and snow and all that fun weather.

Adara pulled her jacket tighter around herself, shivering and picking up the pace. I laughed and jogged to catch up with her. “It’s not that cold!” I complained.

Adara huffed. “It _is_ that cold. You just have that freakish child of the sun god thing where you’re like a human heater pack. It’s not fair.”

I wrapped my arms around her from behind, taking big clumsy steps and almost causing her to fall over. “If you wanted a sun-spawn hug all you had to do was ask.” I teased her.

She laughed despite herself, and shoved me off. “Idiot, we’re here.” She announced, leading the way up a set of stairs and into an apartment complex.

When we reached the right door, Adara pulled out her key and let us in, looking around for her mother. “Mom?” she called, but it didn’t seem like anyone was home.

“Maybe she’s still at work?” I suggested.

Adara looked a little nervous. “Maybe..” she muttered, dumping her bag and leaving me alone to go look around. She checked the bathroom and then her mother’s bedroom in an almost mechanical way, and I wondered if maybe she had come back to a worryingly quiet apartment before.

“She’s not here.” Adara finally announced, taking her jacket and shoes off. I followed suit.

“I’m sure she’ll be back soon. In the meantime, I want to see your bedroom!”

Before Adara could protest I headed over to the bedroom she didn’t check, figuring it had to be hers. I opened the door and found lilac walls, a desk covered in stickers, and a tapestry of old photos stuck to the wall haphazardly with tape, blue tac, anything that appeared to have been on hand at the time.

“Woah.”

Adara rushed in behind me, looking around, presumably for anything embarrassing. She must have deemed it acceptable, because she let go of the death grip she had on my arm and we headed into the room.

I was most interested in the photo wall. It was a mix of normal and polaroid photos of Adara and her mother through the years. I caught myself smiling dopily at one where Adara looked about six years old and she had the chubbiest baby cheeks and a few missing teeth from her smile.

“D’aww, look at the little half-blood.” I commented.

“Shut up, like you don’t have embarrassing pictures from when you were a kid.” she scoffed.

I shrugged. “Not really. Foster parents don’t tend to take pictures of kids they don’t intend to keep.” It was just a fact, nothing sad about it in my mind, but Adara’s eyes said otherwise. She took my hand and dragged me over to a different part of the wall, searching for something.

“Aha! Here.” She pointed to a picture of us from the first campfire we went to. Neither of us were looking at the camera. I was grinning like an idiot at Adara, holding her hand, and she was smiling nervously back at me. It made my heart warm.

“One of the Aphrodite kids took it for a book they’re making about potential---” she cut herself off, clearing her throat embarrassed. “Anyways, I got it off them and sent it to my mom since she likes having photos from all the important milestones in my life.”

I grinned, tugging on Adara’s hand to bring her closer. “I’m an important milestone?” I asked, cheekily.

She rolled her eyes in response. “Yeah, I guess. Whatever. First friend and everything.”

“You’re so cute.”

“You’re annoying.”

Just then we heard the door open, and the voice of Adara’s mother calling out. “Sweetie, are you here?”

Adara practically sprinted out the room to her mother. I followed and caught the end of their hug. Adara looked like a weight have been lifted off her shoulders.

“Sorry I wasn’t here to greet you two, I went out to get supplies for Christmas cookies.” She explained. “Hi Theo, nice to meet you in person!”

I reached out and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you too! Thanks for letting me stay, Ms. Reed.”

The woman chuckled, shaking her head. “That makes me feel old. Let’s stick with Lori.”

I nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

Lori turned to her daughter, pulling something out of one of her bags. “I also got something else for you. It’s a Christmas present, but I think it’s best if you open it now.”

Adara raised a questioning eyebrow, but took the package anyways. We all moved to the sitting area as Adara opened her early present, a huge smile appearing on her face when she saw what it was.

“A new camera!?” she exclaimed, excitedly. “I’ve missed having one at camp! This is amazing mom.” She reached over to hug the woman tightly.

“I figured if you opened it now, you could take pictures over the next couple days.” Lori explained.

Adara nodded, hastily taking everything out the packaging and already filling the blank polaroid photo paper into the camera. It was nice to see her so comfortable and carefree. I hoped that one day she could feel like that at camp too.

Watching Adara and her mom joke and laugh, reminiscing about past holidays caused a strange ache in my chest. I could barely remember my mom’s face… I pushed the thought away, smiling again, not wanting to put a downer on the mood for Adara’s first holiday back with her mother after two long years.

“Here, let me take one of you two.” I offered, holding my hand out for the camera.

Adara furrowed her eyebrows, grabbing my hand instead and tugging me over onto the couch beside her, so she sat in the middle of me and her mom. “Idiot, you have to be in the photo.” she told me off. “But you still take the picture, since your arms are longer.”

The smile on my face felt a lot easier all of a sudden. “You got it, Paddles.” I chuckled, holding my arm out as far as I could and taking a picture of the three of us.

When the photo was done being developed Adara left to go tape it to the wall somewhere among the others. I watched her go, shaking my head in amusement.

“She seems much happier than last time she visited.” Lori commented.

I swallowed heavily. I remembered when Adara had left camp to visit her mom. I had heard through one of my half-siblings working in the infirmary that night that Mr. D had walked Adara to the camp boundary in the middle of the night with a backpack and that only Mr. D came back to the big house after. I was afraid she had left camp for good.

For hours I felt sick to my stomach, angry at my half-siblings for blaming her, and angrier at myself for not bursting into the Dionysus cabin that day and not leaving until Adara knew I didn’t blame her for what happened. I’d never felt so relieved as when I saw her come back into camp with Argus later that afternoon. Wandering down half blood hill in the late afternoon sun, with a content smile on her face, I swore that was the moment I knew I felt more than just friendship for her.

“I’m sorry for that.” I apologized, looking down at my feet.

Lori put a comforting hand on my shoulder, and I looked up to see a warm, understanding smile. “It wasn’t your fault. Besides, I’m pretty sure you’re the reason she’s happier this time. In fact, I should be thanking you for…” she hesitated. “For being there for her when I wasn’t.”

I nodded, unsure what to say. I had no witty retort, and I couldn’t form any genuine words, so I just cleared my throat and clapped my hands together. “So! You said you got supplies for cookies?” I asked, excitedly.

Lori nodded. “Come on Adara! It’s cookies time!” she called, heading to the kitchen.

I waited for Adara to come back from her room. She bounded back, camera still in hand. “Come on, _Ted_. Bet you I can decorate a better cookie than you.”

“Oh you are _so_ on, Paddles! Lori can be the judge!”

The whole scene felt so serene and domestic. Even if I wasn’t ‘a human heat pack’ as Adara had called it, I was sure I’d still have this warm fuzzy feeling inside that I did standing in that kitchen.


	4. A Goddess Does My Hair

Baking cookies went just about how you could expect with two rowdy half-bloods. Lori did most of the actual measuring and skill-required aspects, while Adara and I argued over who got to crack the eggs and threw flour at each other. It was a good system.

As the cookies cooled, Adara suddenly remembered a pile of strawberry orders she had forgotten about and ran to the bathroom to Iris-message Chiron. I rolled my eyes and continued drying washed baking utensils as Lori handed them to me.

“So…” the woman began, as she attempted to scrub the batter off a whisk. “You’re a son of Apollo?”

I nodded. “Yep, the sun god himself.”

“What’s he like?”

I shrugged. “I’ve technically only met the guy once, on the winter field trip a few weeks back. He gave me a golden bow for my birthday.” I remembered the way he winked at Adara and kissed her hand, and a tiny surge of jealousy filled my chest. “Demi-gods don’t usually know their godly parents. Adara’s actually really lucky that Mr. D is camp director otherwise he’d probably never—” I cut myself off, sensing that if I finished that sentence, grape vines would burst fourth from the walls and strangle me.

“She’s just lucky, is all.” I finished, laughing awkwardly.

Lori smiled. “And your mother?”

“Oh, she died when I was pretty young.” I explained. “But it’s okay- I have camp, and that’s sort of like one big family.” I smiled, earnestly. At least, I thought it was earnest, but Adara’s mother stopped washing dishes and gave me a worried look.

“Well, you’re welcome here anytime as well, Theo.”

I nodded. “Thanks, Ms. Reed—I mean, Lori.”

Adara returned and we decorated the cookies, I won ( _of course_ ). Afterwards we went out to a diner for food and I forgot for a moment that I didn’t have to get up and throw some of it into the fire for the gods. Adara laughed at me as I embarrassingly sat back down in our booth, plate in hand.

After dinner we watched some Christmas movies and ate the cookies we had made earlier that day before all turning in. I was nestled into the couch, fast asleep, when I felt the cushion dip as someone sat down next to me.

Still half asleep, I tried to see who it was in the dark. She had flawless porcelain skin and her green eyes shone in the darkness. “Adara?” I whispered, rubbing my eyes. When I opened them again I realized it was not in fact Adara. I couldn’t quite pin down who it was because their eyes seemed to keep changing colours and my sleep deprived brain wasn’t fully processing.

“No, not your little friend. But I’ll take that as a good sign.” she said in a symphony like voice, amusement in her eyes.

I could smell flowers and perfume again.

“A-Aphrodite?” I tried again, stunned. I had never been visited by a god before, and from what I heard from other people, it was not usually a good thing.

“Are you really that surprised, dear? I could hear your yearning for the daughter of Dionysus from worlds away, even without your prayer at the fire.”

I sat up, and even though my brain was telling me to shuffle away from the shining goddess who was now playing with my hair, styling it, I couldn’t help but to stare at her dopily and unmoving. “But um…I, I didn’t pray to you.” I tried to explain, politely.

“Maybe not intentionally, but I heard your words none the less.” She smiled, mischief in her eyes. “You love the girl, and you want her to love you back, but she needs a push to realize her true feelings for you.”

I swallowed heavily. “Don’t do anything to her!” I begged, desperately. The goddess may have been right that I wanted Adara to feel the same way about me that I did about her, but I didn’t want it if it was because Aphrodite made Adara feel like that.

“Hush, boy.” she warned me, bringing a slender finger to her lips. “You don’t want to wake them do you.” Aphrodite moved one more strand of hair before deciding her masterpiece was complete and standing up, pleased with herself. “Because you pined so prettily for the Dionysus girl, I’ll heed your request. I won’t do anything.” She paused, a sly smile on her lips. “…to _Adara_.”

With a shimmering flash that had me covering my eyes, she was gone. The bubbly, warm feeling that had fallen over me in the goddess’ presence ended too, and I was left feeling more sick than anything. With a grumble I messed up my hair, putting it back the way it was before and flopping back down on the couch.

Gods help me I had a terrible feeling about what tomorrow would bring…

I didn’t sleep well the rest of the night, tossing and turning worrying about Aphrodite’s ominous promise. Dawn finally broke, and I knew I’d never get back to sleep then, but I opted to stay hidden under the covers for a while longer. At least, that had been the plan until someone sat on me.

“Owww…” I groaned, pulling the covers off.

“Oh my gods, is there a person under there?” Adara asked, feigning shock. “I thought it was just a really ugly looking pillow.”

“Who are you calling ugly?” I grumbled, tossing the blanket over her face. She laughed and stood up. “Come on, I thought you were supposed to be a son of Apollo- doesn’t that like, make you a morning person automatically?”

I considered for a moment telling her about my late-night visit from Aphrodite, but she looked so excited and happy, I didn’t want to ruin the day. Especially considering that it was the day before Christmas.

I managed a smile. “I’m up, I’m up.” I conceded, stretching. “What’s the plan for today?”

Adara folded the blanket up and tossed it aside. “Well, my mom still has to work a half day, so it’s just us until later this afternoon. I was thinking we could just sort of wander around town. I still need to find my mom a Christmas present.”

“Sounds good to me!”

“Awesome. But first- I’m starving. Breakfast.” she headed to the kitchen and I watched her go.

She didn’t seem any different than usual. Maybe a bit more excited, but it was Christmas so I couldn’t count that. So far it seemed like Aphrodite had kept her promise about not doing anything to Adara. But now I was more worried that she was going to do instead. I considered praying to my dad for a moment, but I knew that would be useless. Godly parents weren’t supposed to directly help their kids…Plus, if you were on Aphrodite’s radar, there was nothing you could do to stop her until she had her fill of romantic entertainment.

My appetite disappeared at the thought.


	5. I Get a 50/50 Chance

By the time we were done eating and getting ready, I had managed to mostly push my worry aside so I could the day with Adara. But knowing you could never trust a god, I made sure to bring my backpack with me when we headed out, knowing that it had my bow from Apollo in it. That was the great thing about the bow, which I had discovered only after playing around with it for the first time, it could shrink into a small palm sized cylinder when needed. And so long as the sun was out, arrows would appear, notched and ready to fire. It was a pretty awesome gift.

Even with her hands shoved in her pockets to protect them from the wind, I could tell Adara was cold. I slipped my hand into her pocket, holding hers. She let out a quiet squeak of surprise but didn’t complain.

“Oh! Let’s look in here!” Adara suddenly spoke up, dragging me into what looked like a mix between a hobby-shop and an ‘As Seen on TV’ store, meaning almost everything inside looked tacky and cheap, but fun.

Since the store had the heater blasting, I let go of Adara’s hand while we browsed around, and I swore I saw the briefest flicker of disappointment cross her eyes. I contained a small smile. _Progress_ , I thought. Maybe Aphrodite wouldn’t need to get involved after all.

While I played with a lava lamp, Adara came bounding over to me holding a wooden sign in her hands. It read ‘ _Wine! Because no great story ever started with someone eating a salad_.’ She had a mischievous glint in her eye that made me just a little bit proud of how much I had corrupted her. “How long do you think I would be grounded for if I gave this to Mr. D?” she asked.

I laughed, taking the sign and turning it over in my hands. “For only $10? Worth it no matter how long he punishes you for.” I assured her.

She smiled brightly and clutched the present to her chest. “I can’t wait to see his face.”

“I had nothing to do with it if he asks.” I added. “Your dad is just looking for any excuse to kill me.”

Adara pouted. “He doesn’t hate you that much!”

“On a _good_ day he calls me Ted, otherwise I’m ‘the sun-spawn who hangs around his daughter too much’.”

“Well _I_ like you, so it doesn’t matter.” she assured me, before taking off to look for a gift for her mother. I perused the shelves, wondering if I might be able to find something to get Adara for Christmas as well. I had no idea what to get her. A Mood Ring? A whoopie cushion? A combination pen and screwdriver? Nothing was really saying ‘you’re the best thing in my life right now and I want to show you how much I appreciate your friendship’.

After another few moments Adara appeared again seemingly having chosen a lava lamp for her mother. “She used to have one from way back in college, but when I was like 8, I accidentally broke it.” she explained the choice.

We checked out and left the store. I noticed a coffee shop at the end of the street and steered us towards it. “I want to try one of these fancy holiday drinks everyone is always going on about.” I informed Adara as I led us inside.

We sat at a table by the window, Adara with her hot chocolate and me with a peppermint mocha concoction that had whipped cream and sprinkles on top. I took one sip and cringed.

“Not good?” Adara asked, as she inspected the colourful drink with wary eyes.

I forced myself to swallow. “It’s not that bad.”

Adara laughed and went to take a sip of her hot chocolate, but she paused when she noticed the name on her cup that I had given the barista. “Paddles? Really?” she glared at me.

I shrugged, innocently taking another sip of my gross drink. 

I noticed that Adara was clutching her hands around the warm drink, still slightly shivering from the cold. “Here, put this on.” I told her, grabbing the ugly camp half blood Christmas sweater out my backpack and handing it to her. She took it and gratefully put it on under her jacket. It was a little big on her but it still looked good.

“So we share clothes now huh?” she asked, more relaxed.

“Well it is what friends do. So I expect you let me wear the leopard print jacket from time to time.” I smirked.

“It does suit you very well.” she laughed.

Once we finished our drinks we headed back into town. It had since began lightly snowing the kind of thick snowflakes that got stuck in your hair and eyelashes. We walked until we ended up in an empty park where we found some shelter under a gazebo to shake the snow from ourselves.

I looked over and saw Adara still had some flakes in her hair, so I brushed them out, my hand hovering in her soft curls. She noticed the lost expression on my face.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked, in a soft voice, her hand nervously coming up to hold mine.

I met her eyes and suddenly felt tongue tied. “I…”

That’s when I noticed that the pile of snow next to the cleared pathway was moving. I could see the tip of something just barely sticking out. Worried it might be somebody buried under the snow, I gently let go of Adara’s hand to go investigate.

“What is it?” Adara asked, watching me.

“I think there’s something under here.” I explained, carefully reaching forward and uncovering more snow from the protruding object. It almost looked like…a ram’s horn?

Suddenly the snow went flying and a large snake-like creature emerged from the pile. I fell backwards, ducking to avoid getting hit by its body which was flailing around bonelessly. Yeah, _bonelessly_ \- as in, if that thing had bones I don’t think it could bend like that.

It had two sharp horns on its head and dangerous looking fangs. While it flung around, freeing itself from the snow, Adara ran forward and grabbed my arm, dragging me away.

“What is that thing!?” I asked, shocked.

Another head popped out of the snow where the thing’s tail should have been, and I realized miserably that we were dealing with two sets of fangs and horns.

“It’s a Cerastes!” Adara called, her grip on my arm tightening as fear filled her eyes.

I quickly dug through my backpack, grabbing my golden bow. It burst forward to full size, shimmering in the reflection from the snow. I tried to aim at one of the heads, but it kept hissing and flipping around.

“I can’t remember which is which.” Adara muttered, despair in her voice.

“What?”

“The heads! One head’s horns point up and the other points down because one’s bite is venomous and the other isn’t!” she explained. “But I can’t remember which is which!”

I swallowed heavily, willing my hands not to shake. This was the first time I’d really fought a monster outside of camp. “I’ll just have to shoot both of them. You hide!” She hesitated, but I pushed her towards the trees. “Go! You don’t have a weapon!”

One of the Cerastes heads stopped flailing around and narrowed in on Adara as she ran for cover behind a tree. I shot an arrow at it to keep its attention on me. It worked, but unfortunately that meant that both sets of angry fangs were now coming towards me.

I rolled out the way, shooting two more arrows from my knees, but the Cerastes was able to move like water, it bent in impossible ways to avoid the arrows. The serpentine monster recovered and this time instead of coming at me with its fangs, it flailed its long neck and I barely had time to brace before it knocked into me, sending me flying and knocking the air out my lungs.

I heard Adara scream my name and for a horrible moment I remembered Adara telling me about the weird look Melpomene and Erato had given her on Olympus. If Aphrodite had sent this Cerastes to kill one of us and turn this into a tragic love story, I swore right then I would personally fight the gods for their stupid games they played.

I hit the ground with a hard impact, the snow doing nothing to soften the fall. My golden bow fell out my hand. I could see the shadow of the Cerastes fall over me as I tried desperately to reach my weapon in time.

“Look out!!” Adara screamed, but it was too late. Just as my hand clutched around the golden bow, I felt a burning sensation in my side as one of the heads sunk its fangs into me. It didn’t hurt as much as I thought being impaled by a giant snake monster would hurt, but I figured I was just in shock.

The head reeled back ready for another bite, but a rock flew at it, catching the attention of both heads. Adara continued throwing anything she could get her hands on to grab the monster’s attention while I tried to keep pressure on my wounds so I wouldn’t bleed out in the snow.

“Get away from him!” she shouted. I doubted the creature understood what she was saying, but it started advancing towards her anyways.

“Adara!” I called, struggling to sit up and aim my bow.

That’s when something in the air changed. Adara stood the monster down, unflinching, both hands tensed in concentration. When she opened her eyes, they were like bright purple flames. Looking at her, I felt slightly lightheaded- whether from the blood loss or whatever Adara was doing, I couldn’t tell.

The Cerastes stopped moving, instead both its heads started flopping around, uncoordinated. It rolled in the snow smashing into anything in its path, and that’s when I realized that Adara was driving the monster insane. It should have scared me, but I was more impressed than anything.

She narrowed her eyes and the two heads started flailing even more, until finally they turned on one another, biting each other over and over until the creature fell down dead, disappearing into a pile of dust. All that was left was a single horn.

Adara rushed to my side the moment it was dead, her teary eyes back to their usual green instead of the brilliant purple they had been moments before. “Are you okay?” she asked, looking me over.

“My backpack.” I pointed back to the gazebo, trying not to move too much. Adara sprinted back, falling to her knees and searching through the bag until she found what I was asking for- an ambrosia square in a plastic bag.

She held the square up to my mouth while I took as large a bite as I could without burning up from the inside out. The wound itself wasn’t that deep, but that only meant one dreadful thing..

The bleeding stopped as the ambrosia took effect, but the area around the wound was starting to go an awful shade of dark purple. Adara broke down into a sob as she looked at it.

“It could… It could just be bruising.” I offered, but I could feel a hot stinging sensation radiating out from the bite mark. Adara knew better than to believe my lie. She surged forward, wrapping her arms around me and pressing her face against my chest.

It was time to accept the inevitable. We were hours away from camp, with no way to get to another healer, and I had been bitten by the venomous head.

Adara reached up and gripped the collar of my jacket tightly, crying into my chest. “Pray to your dad! He has to help you! He has to!” she cried.

I could no longer sit up, falling back onto my elbows. Adara laid in the snow with me, holding me tight. “Gods…c-can’t interfere directly…” I reminded her, bringing my hand up to wipe some tears from her cheek.

“You can’t! Y-You’re my first friend!” she choked out. “I didn’t even get a chance to tell you—”

I cut her off. “It’s okay, Adara.” I didn’t want Aphrodite to get her entertainment. She wouldn’t get a single word out of Adara for the muses to recite, I’d make sure of that if it was the last thing I did.

“You should have my bow.” I told her, my vision starting to fade.

Adara looked over at the bow, her eyes widening. “A gift from Apollo!” She exclaimed suddenly, standing up with renewed hope. “The gods give gifts, but they take them also!” she exclaimed, almost falling over as she ran to the pile of dust and grabbed the Cerastes horn, bringing it back to my side.

“Oh lord Apollo! I offer you this war spoil! Please heal Theo!!” She begged to the sky, holding the horn up in offering.

There was no immediate response and my heart clenched as Adara sunk down, the horn falling out her hands as she gripped my shirt. “ _No_.” she whispered in defeat.

A flashing light nearly blinded us both, and emerging from the light, a glowing hand reached down and picked up the horn. “Not really my kind of décor, but I’ll take it.”

I couldn’t be sure that I wasn’t hallucinating. My father was kneeling next to Adara, an odd expression on his face. His hand reached towards me and I thought he said “This might feel a bit weird”, but I couldn’t be sure because my ears felt clogged and I was pretty sure I was about to pass out.

A sudden warmth filled every inch of my body and my eyes shot open. I felt alert again and the burning in my side was gone. I tested the waters by sitting up and laughed in disbelief at the fact that I was alive.

I turned to thank my father, but Adara’s hands were on my face, turning my head towards her as she captured my lips in a desperate kiss.

I didn’t even have time to close my eyes before she pulled away and punched my arm. “You idiot!” she screamed, eyes still full of tears. “You’re not allowed to leave me, Theo! Not now and not ever!”

I swallowed heavily, wiping her tears. “Alright, I promise not to leave you.”

Apollo cleared his throat, a wide smirk on his face. “How about I give you guys a lift home huh?”

Both Adara and my face must have been red with embarrassment. I nodded as Adara got up and dusted the snow off herself awkwardly.

“Sounds good, thanks Dad.”


	6. I Have the Best Christmas Ever

Things were kind of a blur, but next thing I knew we were back at Adara’s mom’s place.

“Don’t feel bad about getting the venomous end. It was a 50/50 chance afterall.” Apollo told me, patting my shoulder.

“Uh…thanks?” I replied, unsure what to really say in response to such a casual way of talking about the fact that I almost died minutes ago.

Hearing voices, Adara’s mom came rushing out of her bedroom. “There you guys are! Adara said you were going to be back an hour ago! I was so worried.” She looked at Adara who, I was now realizing, wasn’t looking so good. “I almost called your father! Are you okay? Who is this?”

Adara stepped forward to explain, but she promptly began to wobble, lightheadedly, before falling into my arms. I lead her over to the couch to sit down before she actually passed out.

“Classic overuse of powers. It’s easy to drive humans insane, but making something that comes for Tartarus go loco takes effort.” Apollo spoke up, producing an ambrosia square. He tried to hand it to Adara but I stopped him.

“She can’t have ambrosia.”

Apollo rolled his eyes. “Come on, after that display of control? She can have a little, doctors orders.”

I was nervous about it, but I didn’t like how pale and drowsy Adara looked, and her mom was nodding in agreement, so I fed her the smallest corner of the ambrosia. Slowly but surely the colour returned to Adara’s face.

“Sorry for scaring you, mom.” She said once she was feeling better.

Lori let out a shuttering laugh, shaking her head. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“You must be Adara’s mother!” Apollo smiled, sauntering over and offering his hand. “Nice to meet you, you can call me Apollo.” He winked.

Lori blinked, looking between me and the god. “You’re Theo’s dad?” she asked, surprised.

“Yep! And I bet you and I will have the opportunity to spend some more time together now that these two little saps have—”

I cut my dad off, dragging him away from Adara’s mom desperately. “Thank you for saving me, and for bringing us here, dad! Time to go now!”

He chuckled, ruffling my hair. “Alright, alright, cool yourself mini-me.” I didn’t care for that nickname at all. “Adara, Ms. Adara’s mother.” he nodded, before disappearing in a flash of gold.

There was a moment of awkward silence before Lori let out a heavy sigh. “Alright, you two, full explanation now please.”

We told her about getting attacked by the Cerastes and offering its horn to my dad in exchange for him saving me, but it seemed like Adara and I were both in unspoken agreement not to mention the kiss.

When we were done explaining, Lori rubbed her temples together and stood up walking away and picking up the phone. Adara looked nervous. “What are you doing?” she asked, worried.

“Given that you both had near death experiences today, and I’m pretty sure I just had a heart attack listening to you tell me about them, I’m ganna go ahead and decide that we’re ordering in tonight, because _I for one_ certainly don’t feel like cooking.”

“I thought..” Adara swallowed heavily. “I thought you were going to call Mr. D and send us back to camp..” she admitted, nervously. I understood that feeling, the fear in the back of your mind that you might get sent away at any minute. But Adara’s mom didn’t seem like that kind of person.

Lori gave her daughter a sympathetic look, coming back to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Not in a million years.” She promised. “But I do think _you_ should call your father and let him know what happened.” she added, before walking away to order the food.

I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly. “Well, since he’s your dad, I don’t really need to be there when you---”

Adara already had hold of my arm and was dragging me to the bathroom with her. “No way, if I’m getting yelled at, you are too, buddy.” she announced, flashing me a small smile as she turned the shower water on and pulled a coin out her pocket.

Mr. D and Chiron both listened to the whole tale. Chiron was surprised that a Cerastes was out in the wintertime, let alone attacked us, and Mr. D had yet to comment. He was just listening, an annoyed look on his face.

“Well, it’s very lucky indeed that Apollo accepted your gift Adara.” Chiron commented. “Otherwise dear Theo here wouldn’t be alive.”

Mr. D hummed. “What a shame.”

“Dad!” Adara scolded.

“Hm? I merely meant ‘a shame that your little holiday got interrupted’. I wasn’t implying that I hoped Ted perished.”

“ _Theo_.” Adara corrected him, angrily.

“Anyways…” Chiron interrupted their stare down. “Hopefully the rest of your holiday is quiet. And when you get back to camp we can discuss this growth in your powers in detail, Adara.”

The Iris-message ended and suddenly it seemed really weird to be in the small bathroom together. “Um so…” I began, dumbly.

“We should get out these wet clothes.” Adara suggested, and I nodded enthusiastically.

“Good idea.”

The rest of the evening was quiet. We ate food and played a board game while another cheesey Christmas movie played in the background. I couldn’t help but notice that Adara had put my sweater back on again once it dried. The sight brought a small smile to my face.

Everyone was rightfully tired after the crazy day, so we ended up turning in early. I was out like a light practically the moment my head hit the pillow. I had dreams of a purple eyed goddess smiling and offering her hand to me as we stood on the fireworks beach at camp halfblood.

It was a really nice dream, so I was a little annoyed when someone woke me up by shaking my shoulder gently.

I peaked an eye open and for a moment I was afraid Aphrodite was back to try and ruin my life again, but I realized that this time it really was Adara sitting on the edge of the couch. She had a nervous look on her face, and her eyes were red from crying.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, taking her hand.

She squeezed my hand back tightly. “I just… I wanted to make sure you were still…” she stammered, quietly. I smiled sadly, lifting the blanket up and opening my arms. She crawled into my arms hugging me tightly and resting her head against my chest. It was a little squished with both of us on the couch, but I didn’t care. I rubbed gentle circles on her back until she seemed to calm down.

I wasn’t sure if this was the right moment, but I didn’t want to hide anything from Adara so I decided to speak up. “I think I know why the Cerastes attacked us.” I admitted.

Adara glanced up at me, her brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

I swallowed nervously. “Last night…Aphrodite visited me. She said that she’d heard me pining over---” I was losing my nerve. “She’d heard me pining, so she was going to do something to help move things along in the relationship.”

This was stupid. I wasn’t sure why I was trying to be subtle, Adara was laying on my chest, surely she could feel how hard my heart was pounding right now.

“Oh…” Was all Adara said, her fingers playing with her sleeves.

“I’m really sorry… It’s all my fault.” I couldn’t bring myself to look at her.

Adara let out a soft, nervous, laugh. “She really didn’t need to do that… If that monster hadn’t interrupted us at the gazebo I would have—”

I caught her hand, looking down at her with wide eyes. “Really?” I asked, nerves making my stomach do flips. “You…I mean… It’s okay if you don’t feel that way about me…I’d still want to be your friend. Nothing has to change just because Aphrodite thinks we’re in lo—” I cut myself off my insane rambling.

Adara was staring at me with wide eyes, an amused grin on her face. “You’re such an idiot. Do you think I kissed you just because Aphrodite messed with us?” she asked.

I blinked, unsure. “I don’t know. I mean—”

She shut me up with another kiss. This one was different. It was gentle and sweet. When we pulled apart she had a light blush on her cheeks.

“Believe that I like you already, dummy.”

I smiled widely. “Okay, I believe you.”

“Good, now shut up and stop smiling like that.” she huffed, laying back down. I tightened my hold around her, barely able to contain my happiness.

Glancing at the clock, I realized that it was past midnight. “Merry Christmas, Adara.” I whispered in her ear, placing a soft kiss on her cheek. She smiled, eyes still closed.

“Merry Christmas, Theo.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End...?   
> (This fic was more Theo centric, but I do still love Adara and would love to write more for these two)


End file.
